Omaha daily bee., 1887-09-17

nuutS, Will 8VcEdkO oteouu0uVC Va
3,470,609. The Estimates for the current
year provide fot an estimated increase Of
So, 900 in the average attendance. The
education department calculates that
school places should be provided for one
sixth Of the total population, and the ac-
tual supply of places is IN excess even Of
this liberal estimate, but the average at.
tendance falls short OF the register list
about 100000. II
o."~
The abnormal rise OF the river Nile Is
causing great alarm in Egypt. Many
estates on the right bank Of the river are
ruined. Boulak is in serious danger,
the villages around Luxor are flooded
and Luxor itself is seriously damaged.
Telegraphic communication with Upper
Egypt Is interrupted, the Nile Is still
rising and the situation IS very serious.
The river begins to rise as early as April
in Its upper branches, but not until the
latter part Of June in Egypt, where 1t
reaches Its greatest height about Septem-
Der 25. At that time 1t Is usually
twenty-four feet above the low-water
level ut Cairo and thirty-six feet at
Thebes. Whenever the rise reaches
thirty feet at Cairo the overflow does
great damage; on the other hand. when
it falls short of eighteen feet the crops
fail and there is famine in the land OF
Egypt, as there was in the days OF
Joseph and Pharaoh. Of sixty-six mum
dations between 1875 and 1901, eleven
were very high, thirty good, sixteen
feeble and nine insufficient. The water
of the Nile is charged with mud, which it
deposits on the cultivated land of Egypt
to an average depth of one-twentieth OF
an inch each year, thus in measure
keeping the soil continually fertile by re-
newal, and at the same time thoroughly
irrigating it. If the present inundation
is so destructive as represented it must
be that the river has risen far beyond its
usual height, for the country Is prepared
and expectant of the usual and average
lnundation. Probably the rainy season
| in Central Africa has been more than or
dinarily severe, as the annual rise of the
Nile Is due to the rise in its continents
and tributaries, and these are swollen by
| the heavy rains of the interior.
~
If the defense which the friends of
| President Barillas of Guatemala make of
| his conduct in decreeing himself dictator
is not grossly untruthful in its statements
Of fact, it must g. far towards justifying
| so extreme measure. 1t shows. at any
rate, that it had become for tho country
question of either dictatorship or usurpa.
ton. The clerical majority IN the assem-
| bly, pushed through laws of a revolution
| ary and ndunconstitutlonal character which
were designed to subject the entire gov
ernmen. to their policy, and which GER
tainly would have done so had not
Barillas cut the whole thing short by
assuming the power of dictator.
The most obnoxious and radical of the
laws threatening him was scheme to
transfer all the power of the executive to
the supreme court. Having first, in de
fiance of the constitution, displaced the
judges who by law were entitled to two
years more of service, the assembly pro-
ceeded to enact that the court could
summon the military to enforce its
sentences, that it could suspend at its
will interior judges, ell officers OF the
army, custom house and treasury Off
cials, and tnat the president himself
must obey the orders of the court with
out any appeal against their legality. 1t
is easy to see that Barlllas would have
had no authority left under such laws,
and, as his veto power was powerless to
prevent their enactment, he took the
only other course possible-unless he
were to 60 into exile.
Nv
The return OF General Butler from Ire
land at his own instance and in spite Of
the protest of the British government, af-
fords another reminder of the fact that
the way to keep the antiIrish flame
a-burning is to keep Englishmen out of
Ireland The moment that honest Brit
ish officials land in that country aud
open their eyes, they show signs Of con-
version. When it was proposed to send
n distinguished officer to the most con-
gested part of Ireland to execute the new
policy of energy. Lord Wolseley is said
to have offered his services IN the
belief that he could make Ireland
q garden or a grave in no time. Fin
ally, however, General Redyers Butler, a
through-and-through conservative, was
assigned to the task; and the first evil
dence OF his change of views was a re-
: fusal to order troops TO assis! officers with
eviction warrants in their hands. until an
examination was first had to determine
whether the tenants were poor or simply
ugly. The second straw was his remark
under oath before the high commission
on the land question that all the law or
protection the Irish tenants had came
from the national league The tory at
torneys almost choked with rage, and a
warning came directly from the tory
benches that Butler must have care. II
Butler turns out home.ruler he will be
only following the footsteps of coercion
lists like Spencer, Treveiyan and others.
~
The kingdom OF Saxony is richer IN
railroads than any other German state,
containing 1855 meters of track on every
square kilometre of ground, as against "a
in Prussia. 81 in Bavaria, "A in Wurtem-
berg, SO in Baden, 100 in Hesse, 1O5 in
Saxe-Altenberg,1 DOOM Anhalt, SO in SAKE
Weimar, etc. SaNony enjoys also the